VACCINATING YOUR KITTEN

Vaccination is an important means of protecting your cat against several contagious diseases, some fatal. For pet cats, we recommend vaccination against flu, enteritis and leukaemia. The situation is different for colonies of breeding cats- we can easily arrange a programme on request.

Cats can start the vaccine course at any age from 9 weeks of age. The vaccines start with a course of 2 injections 3 weeks apart. To keep the immunity effective your cat needs a booster every year.

Cat flu is a viral disease causes by two main viruses -Calicivirus arid Herpesvirus. The main symptoms are sneezing, coughing, discharging sore eyes and mouth ulcers. It can develop into pneumonia and can occasionally be fatal. There is no specific cure for these viruses, treatment can help reduce the symptoms. Herpesvirus in a particular problem in that it lies dormant in the body indefinitely and causes relapses throughout life. It is not uncommon for cats that have had flu as a kitten to be snuffly all their life.

Enteritis is a fatal viral disease, sometimes seen in young kittens. The protection against enteritis is combined in the flu vaccine.

Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV) is the commonest cause of death in young cats in the U.K. Infected cats show a myriad of problems ranging from diarrhoea, mouth ulcers and lethargy to cancerous tumours . It is spread mainly in the saliva of infected cats and is passed from cat to cat by grooming, sharing the same feeding areas or biting. The disease is fatal with life expectancy being 2 years after infection.

The vaccine gives good immunity against FeLV infection and protects your cat against catching the disease. However we must understand that it cannot cure an animal which is already infected.The only way to test if your cat already has the virus is to do a blood test. The complicating factor is that a cat that has only just picked up the virus will not show a positive result ! In theory you should therefore do 2 tests at a 4-6 week interval to guarantee your cat is free of the virus. In practise most owners opt to vaccinate without having done the blood tests accepting that there is a small risk their cat is already infected.